#edited base

In the end, it was a LOT more than quick coloring, and the base is edited in several tangible ways. Moreover, it took me a sizable amount of time to get this far and I haven't even put anything more than blocked in hair shineys and some really rudimentary eye work. At this point I'm more than a half dozen hours in. XD

For reference, I used to do the old Forward Bias daily emotes in under two hours. However, it's clear I'm really rusty and using new software (that was Paint Tool SAI and this is Clip Studio Paint.) I had to reinvent a number of techniques (overpaint-and-remove, highly layered color, opacity stacking, etc.) I used to use to get some of this work done.

But what really threw me off is that it felt kinda wrong doing this.

Lots of people use bases, and I have explicit permission to use this one. Permission which I dutifully paid to acquire, and have taken significant effort to ensure compliance with the licensing terms of. And yet somehow, despite all of that, this sets the little flag in my brain that says "this doodle contains the work of others and is not suitable for public publishing."

I've honestly had the very same problem with anything I've done with adopts. To be honest, I think a lot of it comes from the "if you didn't draw it entirely by yourself you can't do anything with it" credo that I've kinda lived by up to this point. "Make all your own assets" has been the rule for nearly 30 years, and this weird foray into "paying other people to make things you can't" is really messing with my vibe.

But there's lots of really cool art, and there are projects I've wanted to do that will be greatly empowered by being able to use the amazing talents of some of the artists I know, or by mixing their art with my own. I'm not stealing it; if anything I'm doing more positive for the artists now than I ever did by just drawing by myself. (My art definitely doesn't pay their bills.)